Join us for another evening of true, personal stories about science in Los Angeles! This month, we'll present five stories about battles.
Hosted by Audrey Kearns and Joseph Scrimshaw.
Stories by:
Fon Davis is the founder/creative director of Fonco Studios and appears on Battlebots, Cake Masters, Superfan Builds, an instructor at the Stan Winston School, a guest host on nerd shows and a content creator. In his three decade career, Fon has worked on over 40 feature films. As a alumnus of the Industrial Light and Magic Model Shop, Fon has worked on Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, Pearl Harbor feature films, as well as the Star Wars, Matrix, Terminator, Mission Impossible, and Jurassic Park franchises. In addition to his work in visual effects, Fon has also worked in Disney's art departments as a concept designer/model maker, and on several stop motion projects including The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. More recently, Fon directed Emii's Wait Music Video and worked on Academy Award winning Interstellar.
Colton Dunn is a comedic improviser and actor. An alumni of the Upright Citizens Brigade theater, he wrote for Key and Peele and currently plays Garrett on NBC Superstore.
Jennifer Landa is an actress, host, and crafter. Her work and YouTube videos have been featured on sites such as BuzzFeed, Craft Magazine, Huffington Post, LEGO.com, and more. As an actress she’s appeared in various commercials over the years and on tv shows like ABC’s Better Off Ted and MTV’s Awkward. As a host, she has appeared on Collider’s Jedi Council, Fusion’s Star Wars: A New Gaming Era, OraTV’s Dweebcast, and more. Currently, she cohosts ForceCenter, a Star Wars podcast dedicated to celebrating all things in that galaxy far, far, away. Jennifer is also a DIY contributor for the official Star Wars blog on StarWars.com. She sometimes goes by the nickname of “Landa Calrissian” and if you haven’t guess by now, Jennifer is really into Star Wars.
Joey Slamon has worked as a writer and producer on shows such as Arrested Development, Those Who Can’t and Bobcat Goldthwait’s upcoming Misfits and Monsters. She is currently working on season two of I’m Sorry for TruTV. Despite no formal training, she will happily give you medical advice if you ask for it.
Evelyn Valdez-Ward is an undocumented, Latina, scientist and PhD student at the University of California, Irvine. For her thesis, she studies the impact of California's drought on the ways that plants and their soil microbes (fungi and bacteria in the soil) communicate and interact with one another. In addition to doing research, she's extremely passionate about advocating for undocumented students in STEM. She recently published her story "I'm an undocumented scientist fighting for my Dream" in Science, and was invited to speak at the March for Science rally in DC to advocate for Dreamers in STEM. She has been awarded a UCI's Dynamic Womxn's Award for Outstanding Social Justice Activist, and the Svetlana Bersahdsky Graduate Student Award for her lobbying and advocacy efforts. She plans to continue lobbying and fighting for her undocumented community after graduating, and work in science policy, where she can continue to advocate for both science and minorities in STEM.